The invention relates to a system operating at least partly by magnetic attraction for maintaining a vehicle in spaced relation to a track or roadway with the aid of an attracting magnetic device which comprises a first part mounted on the track and a second part mounted on the vehicle and lying opposite the first part so as to leave a free gap therebetween.
In a known system of the above type (German Patent Specification No. 2,711,994), the spring device comprises helical springs arranged between the payload carrier and the support part. The coupling means are connected to the payload carrier and are effective between the payload carrier, a support structure of the vehicle part of the magnetic device and the position-defining device. The coupling means determine the load state of the vehicle by the variations of length of the springs.
In this known vehicle, the spring characteristic of the helical springs must be exactly determined, taking into account the lever ratios of the coupling means, with respect to the force-gap width characteristic of the magnet device. Consequently, when determining the vehicle springing, one is restricted to narrow limits.
The invention is based on the problem of providing a vehicle of the type mentioned above in which, despite the above-described necessity of obtaining a particular spring characteristic for the continuous gap width adjustment of the magnetic device, the vehicle springing, as a whole, can be more suitably adapted to prevailing requirements.